Summary
Use of recombinant human proteins has revolutionized medicine by providing over 200
highly purified hormones and proteins that effectively treat many inherited and acquired
peptide hormone and protein deficiencies. With the exception of therapeutic monoclonal
antibodies, these biological medicines are synthesized by cultured cells using DNA
sequences that would yield proteins with identical amino acid sequences as endogenous
human proteins. Therefore, there was the broad expectation that recombinant human
biological medicines would be non-immunogenic in patients capable of synthesizing
even sub-optimal levels of these therapeutic proteins to which they are innately tolerant.
However, the widespread clinical use of recombinant human proteins has demonstrated
that nearly all of them are immunogenic. This observation suggests that factors additional
to differences in amino acid sequences of endogenous and biotherapeutic proteins contribute
to the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins. The main aim of this review is to summarize
some of the factors that are known to contribute to the immunogenicity of recombinant
therapeutic proteins.
Keywords
Therapeutic proteins - immunogenicity - recombinant human proteins